The larvae of the black soldier fly, Hermetia illucens, contain
high amounts of protein and fat, and so are a good feed source. However,
this high fat content hinders the production of such feed. The excess fat must
thus be removed to enable the larvae to be used as a feedstock e.g., for
aquaculture and livestock. Firstly, the use of hot water treatment as a strategy
for extracting fat from dried larvae was tested. It was found that this process
reduced the fat content of the raw material (from 30 to about 16%). However,
the resulting product was still not suitable for feed processing. Next, the use of
a carbon dioxide supercritical extraction system on crushed larvae was studied.
This system time-dependently reduced the fat content to less than 6.6% and
less than 4.6% after treatments for 2 and 6 h, respectively, with a pressure of
350 bar used on larval particles of 10–18 mesh in size. Therefore, subjecting
10–18 mesh crushed larval powder to carbon dioxide supercritical extraction at
350 bar for 6 h yielded a larval powder with a fat content of 5% or less. Based
on this finding, this method is proposed to be a suitable alternative for further
processing of larvae feedstock.

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